The Camarillo City Council has endorsed an Assembly bill that could allow Gold Coast Transit to expand throughout Ventura County.

Assemblyman Das Williams, D-Santa Barbara, has introduced AB 664, which calls for dissolving the current agency and creating the Gold Coast Transit District. The district initially would serve the same areas it now serves — Oxnard, Ventura, Port Hueneme, Ojai and unincorporated parts of the county — but additional cities could join later if they wanted to.

Gold Coast is currently based on a joint powers agreement between those four cities and the county. Making it a special district would give it a more solid foundation and make it harder for a city to pull out.

A hearing on the bill is set for April 8. If approved, the new transit district would be created July 1.

“What we’re trying to do is create a little bit more permanence in our agency to do a better job at route planning and service planning,” Gold Coast General Manager Steve Brown said.

Brown said he wants the district to focus on areas of the county with the most demand, not only in cities that have available funding in any given fiscal year. The change, Brown said, would allow the district to better compete for federal and state grants to improve service for bus riders.

“If you ride Gold Coast routes today, those routes will only get better in the future,” Brown said.

Camarillo City Council members discussed the bill at length during their meeting Wednesday night. A motion to support the bill if amended was approved by a 4-1 vote, with Councilwoman Jan McDonald dissenting.

The council expressed concerns about the debt and financial responsibilities the city could incur if it joined the district and whether it would lose some local control of bus service.

Councilman Mike Morgan asked if the city would continue to operate its Dial A Ride transportation or switch it over to Gold Coast. “We would consider the existing system to see if that was the most appropriate and then we would look at other options,” Assistant City Manager Dan Paranick said.

Paranick said the city will monitor the bill closely over the next few months.

Darren Kettle, executive director of the Ventura County Transportation Commission, said it has worked closely with Gold Coast for the past year on the bill. Kettle said he sees the bill as a way to improve transportation for riders throughout the county.